The Galapagos Series: Santa Cruz

As most of you know I like animals.  I prefer them to be fluffy and fuzzy but I am partial to the odd feathered creature or a smooth skinned mammal.  We hoped Galapagos would be my Nirvana.  Surrounded by animals 24/7, everything all natural and stuff.  Santa Cruz Island was a great introduction to what the rest of the Islands are like.

Santa Cruz is the most populated of all the Islands and where we decided to base ourselves for most of the time.  Besides roaming the paved streets looking for restaurants and trying to find last minute accommodation, we didn't actually see too much of the island.  The first two days Marc spent diving (see his diving blog posts) and I explored the areas that were public access (most of the time you need to be with a Galapagos National Parks Guide).

The best part of Galapagos is that the animals are really tame and not at all afraid of humans.  We are meant to keep at least two metres from the animals but if you are standing perfectly still and a sea lion happens to walk over to you it's not really your fault!!

On one of our strolls along the main road we stopped at an area where the fishing boats berth to clean and gut their catch.  Here we observed with much delight sea lions sneakily trying to steal fish either from the shore or directly from the boats.  Personally I feel they have a right to the fish, but the hardworking fisherman aren't always as excited to have a sea lion hop on to their boats.

It really was amazing to just be strolling along and happen upon a sea lion relaxing on a pier or even on a bench (just like a homeless person!).

There is a beautiful beach on Santa Cruz called Tortuga Bay.  There is a surf beach side and and the other side is a calm lagoon.  I got up relatively early on one of the days Marc was diving and headed off on the 45 minute walk to the bay.  I arrived around 8am and lucky to have it pretty much just to myself.

Deserted surf beach at Tortuga Bay

Mangrove Island

All to myself!

Tortuga Bay didn't disappoint in the animal department.  They may not be soft and fuzzy but it was awesome just to be able to get so close to wild animals.

First Marine Iguana spotting for the trip

Pelican

Stay tuned for our next Galapagos Series instalment!

Quito

Hola and again, apologies for the delay in posts.

So Quito.  What can we say...we love it here!  The people are friendly, the food is tasty and the scenery is beautiful.  We spent two days in Quito before heading to Galapagos and we squeezed in as much as we could in the historic centre.  After Galapagos we headed back to Quito and explored the more modern northern end of the city and the surrounding areas.

The historic centre is a rabbit warren (I miss Alfie) of narrow cobbled streets packed with vendors pushing their wares and beautiful old buildings.  Our first stop was the observatory which is situated in one of Quito's many beautiful parks.

We would have spent longer here but all the signs were in Spanish so it was difficult for us to get out nerd on.

We then walked up hill (at altitude so this is a big deal) to the Basíllica del Voto Nacional.  It is a beautiful neo-gothic catholic church and can be seen from many places in the historic centre.  The main reason I liked it is because instead of the usual gargoyles there are turtles, iguanas and armadillos scattered around the place!  After that we wandered around many a nice plaza and saw many nice old buildings.

Basílica del Voto Nacional

Turtle gargoyles

 In the evening we headed to Parque Ichimbía which is on a hill to the east of the historical centre and has an amazing view of the old town.  There is a beautiful glass building on the top of the hill which is used for many cultural events.  It was really stunning up there and gave you a feel for how big the city is.

The cultural centre at Parque Ichimbía 

Historic centre at dusk

When we returned to Quito we were lucky to have Pierina (who we met in Cordoba!) show us around her home town!  She was possibly the best tour guide ever!  She took us back to the the Basílica and took us up the spires and the clock towers.  I should clarify this by saying that Marc and Pierina climbed the rickety stairs to the top of the towers while I stayed on the safer lower levels trying to not feel too ashamed as I watched two small children easily and fearlessly climb the death stairs.

Pierina and I in the Basílica

The clocks both with the wrong time

After we safely descended from the Basílica we headed to the more modern northern end of town where we ate at an amazing modern Peruvian/fusion restaurant.  We then wandered around an extremely lovely mall where we realised our packs were not sufficient to carry all the things we would like to purchase so we promptly left and made our way to a massive super market.  Now I know this sounds odd but I just really love seeing supermarkets in other countries.  I love meandering up and down the aisles marvelling at all the things they have that I have never seen before and being bitterly disappointed when I realise they don't have my brand of soy milk.

The next day we booked a day tour with our lovely taxi driver Jorge who planned out a day of sightseeing to Otavalo Markets north of Quito.  We first stopped in San Antonio which was a cute little town known for its beautiful wood carvings.

Jorge - our lovely guide for the day

On the way to San Antonio 

Lago San Pedro and Volcan Imbabura 

Main square of San Antonio

Master wood carver at work

We then headed to  Cuicocha which is a crater lake at the foot of the Cotacachi Volcano with cute little guinea pig shaped islands in the middle of the crater.

At the markets Marc and I bought Amazon appropriate clothes in the form of happy pants and hippy shirts (photographic evidence will be provided in a later post).  Our last stop for the day was the Inti Nan Museum which is built on the line of the equator.  Here we tried to walk in a straight line along the equator (and failed), balanced eggs on nails (succeeded) and watched water swirl in opposite directions on each side of the equator!

This is the mythical fish that swims up your urethra if you pee naked in the Amazon!  Can't wait to go there!!!!

So from Basílicas and fish swimming up your pee hole, we now head to Galapagos!!!!!!

Return from Galapagos

Hi all

So we have just arrived back in Quito after 14 complete days of once in a lifetime experiences.

Due to the lack of internet connection in such a remote but amazing environment we have been prevented from keeping you up to date.

Shortly we will post additional blogs to ensure you get the full picture and exclusive story of our adventure. However, we could not leave without giving you a taste of things to come….


Enjoy

Sea lion pup

Marine Iguana

Galapagos tortoise

Half wet half dry sea lion pup - the cutest kind

Beautiful clear waters off Sombrero Chino Island

Galapagos penguin

Blue footed booby

Playing with the sea lions in their natural habitat

Cordoba and other stuff

I think we mentioned in a previous post that we had plans to head back to Cordoba for a 5 day intensive Spanish course.  We chose Cordoba mainly because we really liked the hostal we had been staying at (real reason was they had a lovely Chilean Labrador name Jujuy, pronounced who-hwe or if you ask Marc it's Whoey).

Jujuy visiting us in our room.

Jujuy trying to hide from me behind the front desk.  "I only want to pet you so you can feel it" - Marc.

This was also the week that Marc and I both got sick.  Not horribly sick but a more a little unwell and lethargic.  Marc spent a day in bed sleeping off whatever he had going on and I took 2 days to recover.

Whilst suffering from general malaise I was also having some crazy allergic reaction which caused my hands to break out in horrible eczema.  It was unbearably itchy and sore and had been driving me crazy for a few weeks.  The symptoms peaked one night whilst sitting around the hostel eating dinner.  I couldn't stand it any longer.  The only thing that gave me any slight relief was holding my hands under the cold water tap or holding on to an ice pack.  Not overly practical options.

The decision was made to call in a doctor.  He arrived an hour or so later and only spoke Spanish.  With the help of google translator (where would we be without google!) we were able to establish that I was having a reaction to something and needed immediate treatment.  I was thinking a cream and maybe some tablets to calm things down.  The doctor had other ideas.  He was thinking a couple of doses of antihistamine and a dose of cortisol steroid...in the butt.  That's right, I said it.  IN THE BUTT.

Now most people aren't great with needles and I'm not afraid to admit that I am a massive sissy pants when it comes to be stabbed.  I am also a needle in the butt virgin so I was not keen on this idea at all.  The doctor was a hard arse (pun definitely intended) and pretty much stared me down until I complied with his barbaric treatment plan.

So after much whimpering demands for Marc to hold my hand I allowed the doctor to inject what looked like a metre long needle into my tender cushy bottom.  And he really drove that puppy home.  It was horrific.  The upside was that the double dose of antihistamine pretty much put me to sleep straight away, oh and the steroids did clear up the eczema.  The downside was that I couldn't lay on my right side or my back as any pressure on the puncture wound caused immense pain and discomfort.  We paid the sadistic doctor his 25 pesos (AU$6.50) and he recommended I see a dermatologist as soon as possible.  I'm pretty sure he punched me right where he stabbed me as he walked out the door but I may have imagined this (unlikely).

Passed out post vicious stabbing.  Marc had the decency to pull my pants back up for me.  That is love.

So that was pretty much all that happened over the 6 days in Cordoba.  Oh and the Spanish lessons were ok.

Mendoza - the western part of Argentina

We had high hopes for Mendoza.  Sadly, through no fault of its own, Mendoza did not live up to the hype.  Perhaps we should not have taken the advice of three coked up 20 year old guys from ANU who we met in our first week in Santiago (we all know the standard of those ANU types).

We booked our bus from Cordoba to Mendoza and as a treat Marc booked us into "cama" class which means the seat reclines into a bed.  Our first disappointment came when we heard that our intended bus had broken down and we were no longer getting our bed like seats but would have to settle for only a partially reclining seat.  Crushing.

Our next disappointment would come from our accommodation.  We had limited options as we had decided to visit Mendoza during its annual wine festival.  We found a hostel aptly named "Exclusive Hostal" as we were probably the only people staying there.  This may have had something to do with the 30minute walk that was required to get you in to the main town centre (in 35 degree heat).  Anyway we stuck with it and it turned out to be quite nice as we had a 2 story loft like apartment to ourselves for the same price as a private hostal room.

We arrived on our first day at the usual time of 6am after a less than comfortable over night bus ride and walked (yes Marc made me walk) to our "Exclusive Hostal".  We were luckily able to check in and freshen up before heading in to town to check out the festival.  We had heard there would be a parade along the main street so we slowly made our way there via a lovely vegetarian restaurant and checked it out.  We were not disappointed.  Think Ferris Bueller, Latin American style!  They also dye all their fountains the colour of red wine.  It reminded me of making port wine flavoured jelly as a child.  Delicious!

Mmmmm jelly!

After our parading we wandered around the city and found a chocolate store where they made their own sweets and sold various other regional wares.

Marc did not want to share his treats.  Worst husband ever!

Loaded with treats and 5 litres of water we headed back to the hostal to prepare for our day of sightseeing which required a 7am start.

We had booked ourselves on what we thought was going to be a hiking/white water rafting excursion day through the Atuel Canyon.  It actually turned out to be 13 hours of driving through the canyon and only stopping to take pictures of their hydro electric power stations.  Not so awesome.  Also due to water restrictions, there was hardly any water flowing through the canyon making rafting a non-option.  It was really pretty but would have been much nicer had we had the opportunity to explore it a little ourselves.

Trying to stay away from fire ants who were ready to eat me alive.

Some rocks and stuff.

So yeah the scenery was nice but we hardly got to see any of it.  Yet another disappointment.

The next day we had booked ourselves on a wine tour as Mendoza is known for wine, particularly Malbec.  We were taken to two wineries and an olive oil factory.  Not sure why the olive oil factory was part of a wine tour but there was free food so I wont overly complain about it.  The first winery was a cute family run business where they made wine the "old fashioned way" and everything was quaint and organic.  The wine was delicious but they only let you try two of their wines (which are always the cheapest) and then encourage you to buy the more expensive wines.  So sneaky.

A barrel that once contained wine 

The second winery was one of those mass produced numbers where they just pump out the stuff.  The buildings and grounds were beautiful but it was a tad sterile.  They did however let us taste more than two wines so that was a plus.

A not very flattering photo of us in the "barrel room".

The modern winery

Some of the more established vines

So Mendoza wasn't that great but we did leave with a few nice bottles of wine and the memory of the jelly fountain!